Neighborhood `Was Like A War Zone'

Men Were Crawling For Their Lives After Being Shot, Arson Suspect Says

July 26, 1996|By C. RON ALLEN Staff Writer

Defense witnesses in the arson trial of Samuel Mohammed testified on Thursday about the terror that stalks their neighborhood and Mohammed's heroic attempts to drive out drug dealers, murderers and prostitutes.

"Oh, God, I don't even stick my head out at nights," said Thelma Lee White, a 40-year resident of the Tamarind Avenue neighborhood in West Palm Beach where Mohammed burned down a crackhouse. "You have prostitutes going in and out, drugs dealers in and out, and if you stand next to one of them, you could get shot in their shoot-out. I wished we had more of [Mohammed)."

Mohammed, 35, testified in his own defense, saying he burned the boarded-up house at 716 Tamarind Ave. on Sept. 10 and 11 of last year to drive out drug dealers and prostitutes.

"It's not Beaver Cleaver neighborhood," Mohammed told the jury. "It was like a war zone. It was nothing to see young men - 16, 17 and even 25-year-olds - crawling for their lives after being shot in the head."

His voice cracking, he said, "I've had them taking their last breath in my hand and had to take them to the hospital."

If convicted of arson and burglary charges, both felonies, Mohammed could face nine years in prison.

Under an agreement worked out on Thursday, the jury could find him guilty of a lesser charge of criminal mischief - a third-degree felony - which carries a penalty of up to five years.

And instead of the burglary charge, he could be found guilty of a lesser charge of trespassing, a second-degree misdemeanor. That charge carries a penalty of up to one year in prison.

The prosecution rested on Thursday, and Mohammed's attorney, Sammy Berry, will have 90 minutes to make his closing argument today. The case should go to the jury by noon.

"If I am convicted, that would be a conviction of not just this community but this nation," the self-proclaimed priest told the jury on Thursday. "You would be saying that you don't give a damn about what's going on in this community, and it would show where your priorities are."

And when Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Tom Lawson tried to paint Mohammed as a vigilante who indiscriminately took the law into his hands, Mohamed interrupted.

"You don't live downtown," he told Lawson. "Every day, you go home to your sheltered environment. Your grandmother is not a victim, so it wouldn't be of major concern to you as it is to me."

White and two other defense witnesses said they have called the police on several occasions but are often discouraged by the response. On one occasion, White testified, a dispatcher asked her, "How old are you? What is your name? What is your date of birth?'' "I said, `Lady, I am not taking Census,'" she said. "I'm calling about shooting outside my door."

Even the lead investigator, Detective Patrick Ross, seemed sympathetic. Testifying for the prosecution, Ross told the jury Mohammed acted out of frustration for what he was seeing in his community.

Mohammed has gained near-hero status in the courthouse. As he walked through the lobby on Thursday to go to lunch, sheriff's deputies, courthouse employees and others approached him to tell him they support his anti-crime crusade.

But at the end of the day, prosecutors attacked Mohammed's credibility. Lawson said Mohammed was a liar who once viciously pumped four bullets into a 16-year-old boy.

Mohammed said he shot the youth in self-defense last February. "I told him not to conduct drug transactions, and he responded [with obscenities), then walked in front me and sprayed [Mace) in my eyes," Mohammed said.

Three days later, the boy returned with a revolver and threatened him. The two struggled, and Mohammed took the gun and shot the boy four times.